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This year Care Leavers and Children in Care have delivered training to adults to help them to really listen to what young people say and build better relationships with them.
On Monday we are Delivering Challenging Stereotypes Training
we have been training and Assessing people who want to become foster carers and
we have trained over 50people in our Participation and Voices Training
Participation and Voices is now a part of newly qualified social workers training,
Last February four of our care leavers met and delivered this amazing training to 13 people.
Just look at this amazing feedback for our trainers!
I really enjoyed the session – Participation and Voices.
It was refreshing to get the perspective of the young people who have experienced being looked after, it is really invaluable to hear from the young people themselves.
The statistics for the number of children who are looked after in Wakefield vs the number of Foster Carers was shocking and also the statistic regarding the wellbeing was eye opening and not expected.
Obviously they spoke about the Mind of my Own app, which I have used. I will be making a point of trying to utilise this more with the young people I am working with (and actually I used it today for two children).
I would like to thank the young people for their time and for sharing their experiences with us, it is so appreciated.
I felt very privileged to have attended the training. It was very informative to hear first-hand information from the young people who have gone through the care system on how they felt, what they have gone through and their views about professionals that they worked with. It was indeed an eye opener and made me reflect and question my work ethics and values in terms of creating time to listen and give a voice to the young people.
I can’t subtract anything from the training but would like more of these training throughout my career as a social worker to improve my understanding of the challenges children and young people face in care .
The day was very informative. Being able to listen to the experiences of service users ( service user doesn’t do them justice actually, to me they were professionals in their own right as experience is not just about going to school or getting a job it’s also life experiences) who have had CSC experience enabled me to gain further knowledge on how to improve my own professional practice. Examples include working towards ensuring that children voices and wishes are heard throughout any work undertaken, ensuring that service user engagement is implemented in diverse ways meaning I should keep up to date with direct work strategies and my own professional development.
It was a positive experience because they showed me that with the right professional input, this can make a positive difference in an individual’s life. What I took is to never judge individuals because of their past experiences because tomorrow they could be the ones who are providing you the knowledge and skills to be a better person and a better professional.
They overflowed with of confidence and inspiration and I had such admiration for them. The positive work they are doing to empower professionals so they can empower others is amazing. And also respect to Richard he taught me that you don’t have to be a social worker to make an impact in a child or an adults life. Sometimes the bigger impacts are implemented by professionals you least expect. It’s important to also gain as much input from various professionals. They asked a question at the start: Why did you want to become a social worker ? I said to make a difference in people’s life. Today’s answer will be to continue to gain knowledge and skills from individuals in society to make the world a better place. May your voices continue to make the change you wish to see. Thank You J
I would just like to say a huge thank you for today’s training. By listening to you all today sharing your experiences of being in care as reminded me of why I came into children’s social care and it has given me even more motivation and determination to help families stay together. I would definitely recommend delivering to all ASYE’s in the future.! Well done : -)
I found the training extremely useful and beneficial to my practice. For me, it reinforced the importance of ensuring my practice is child focused at all times. I feel it really opened my eyes to the impact that the decisions we make on a day to day basis has on the children who we are working with.
In addition I want to say it’s admirable that you are able to share your experiences in front of complete strangers, which will ultimately benefit our practice as Social Workers, and will therefore have a positive impact on the experiences of other children and young people.
What an emotional day. It was very hard-hitting, but very needed. This was such a valuable training experience and the young people were so confident in sharing their experiences. The whole day was an eye-opener and really made me think what I need to do as a social worker to support all of the children and young people I’m working with. Having something like this whilst at university would be amazing, so it’s good to hear that there are some plans for something similar to be delivered to students – I think it will be really well received. I’ll be advising all of my colleagues to attend any future training that you deliver!
The group involving Ryan, Celest and Ash delivered an exceptional training programme. The way in which this presentation was delivered was flawless and I wouldn’t change anything about it, other than having multiple days of training. As a Newly Qualified Social Worker, I’ve already had bad days and this training has put a lot of things into perspective for me and has given me a true insight into Children in Care and their experiences. Observing this programme, I can tell that a lot of time and effort went into preparing this and it paid off. It was the BEST training I have been on. It showed throughout the training, that these young people are trying to make a difference in the world for future Children in Care and any child known to Children’s Social Care.
I want to say thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us. I will take away so much from this programme and I’ve already shared parts of it with my colleagues. If this training continues, I will 100% recommend to everyone and anyone J
I wish you all the absolute best for the future and I hope you all achieve everything you hope to!
I found this training to be great in respect of hearing the young people’s experience and advice on how to approach a variety of situations not with just children in care but also children we work with on CIN or CP.
The impact their voices and experiences had was emotional and deeply thought provoking for myself and others on the training.
I really enjoyed the delivery and felt it was informative and interacting.
Well done guys! And it’s amazing to hear that you are excelling in the present and for your futures.